


5 + 1 Damien and Dark

by Snarkyowl



Category: Markiplier Egos, Who Killed Markiplier
Genre: Actor Mark, Asshole Mark, Bullying, Child Abuse, M/M, Nothing extensively graphic, One Sided Love, William the Colonel - Freeform, blood mentions, injury to a child, whatever you wanna call him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 16:16:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14382324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snarkyowl/pseuds/Snarkyowl
Summary: Five times Dark would appear to visit Damien, and the one time Damien appeared to visit him.





	1. The first and second times

\----  
1\. The day his father hit him for the first time  
\----  
Damien Gentile always loved to spend time with his mother, out under the willow by their pond. Sometimes she would read stories to him, or just tell them from memory. Other times they would look at the clouds, or watch the birds and other animals around them. Damien loved his mother, and this was why he wasn’t mad that she was leaving and only taking Celine.

Damien understood. Of course he did. She couldn’t afford to take them both, and besides father would never let her take Damien even if she could. Father wanted an heir no matter how much he hated children, no matter how much he hated Damien in particular because Damien refused to be like his father. Damien was soft, gentle, and kind where his father was cruel, cold, and harsh.

Damien did his best to be brave, even though he was so young when his mother and sister left. He tried to be brave in the face of his father’s anger, the yelling and throwing things across the room like a lunatic.

It was manageable the first week.

The second week was the week that Damien’s life met a downward spiral that he couldn’t crawl his way out of.

At the age of six years old, Damien Gentile was first struck across the face. His father, in a drunken stupor, had taken to yelling at the boy for getting in his way. Damien tried to apologize, to placate the red-faced monster that was spitting insults and slandering the body Damien inhabited.

Damien’s seventh “I’m sorry, father, I won’t do it again” was the one that was met with a slap across the face. A slap so hard it left Damien reeling and collapsed on the floor, a stinging pain in his cheek giving way to a small stream of blood from a cut left by father’s silver ring.

Damien was quick to retreat, or as quick as he could be, stumbling his way messily up the stairs and into the safety of his bedroom. His distress kept him so harried that it took him all too long to notice the grey man standing in the corner of his room.

Upon noticing him, Damien gasped. He didn’t scream because strange man or not, he didn’t want his father to come in.

So it was with wide eyes and quickening breaths that Damien pressed himself against the door and tries not to start crying even harder than he already was.

The man met his eyes with a blank expression, one that reminded Damien very much of father’s business face. Finally, the man moved towards him. Still, Damien didn’t scream but now it was for a new reason. As the man got closer, the colors around him became muted and eventually faltered away to nothing.

Soon, even Damien himself was beginning to turn black and white.

He looked up at the man with wide eyes, fearful and curious all the same. The man stared back, two dark eyes that were both red and blue if Damien stared hard enough.

“You’re bleeding. May I touch you?” The man’s voice sounded horrible, and yet it was extremely soothing. Damien was so enraptured in watching the blue and red glow around the man, he could only nod mutely in response. His eyes stayed fastened on the man’s outline as the blue leaped about wildly before being smothered by the red in an endless cycle. It was almost like the colors had personalities, and Damien couldn’t look away.

He flinched when something cold and wet pressed against his cut cheek, and he then had to wonder when the man had gotten a glass of water and a cloth. He had been in front of Damien the whole time, hadn’t he?

“My name is Dark.” The man murmured once he had cleaned Damien’s cheek to his satisfaction.

He and Damien were sitting under Damien’s bedroom window now, Damien tucked against the man’s side. When he had decided to trust Dark he didn’t know, but he felt safe against the cold body.

“I’m Damien.” Dark regarded him with a funny expression before nodding his head lightly.

“Yes, I know.”  
“You do? How?” Dark sighed, then, and it was a very tired sigh. Damien watched as the man rested his head back against the window sill, eyes staring out at something Damien couldn’t find with his own eyes.

“Think of me as your shadow, Damien. I know everything that has happened to you, and everything that will.”  
“You’re a time traveler?”  
“In a way, Damien, I suppose I am.” Dark agreed, and Damien hummed.

“I read about one of those once.”  
“Did you?” And so Damien began to talk about the story about a time traveler that his mother had told him. He talked until his throat went dry, and when Dark presented him with a glass of water he talked some more. He talked until the sun went down, and when he finally began to feel tired he looked up at Dark with fear in his eyes.

“You’re going to leave, aren’t you?”

“I am.” Dark nodded, gently lifting Damien off of the ground and into his arms. He was very, very cold, but Damien still felt warm and comfortable. “I’ll be back, someday. Damien, I want to say that I’m sorry I can’t be like this for you more. I do what I can when I can.” Dark said it all very sadly, so Damien put on his brave face.

“It’s okay, Dark. I’ll look forward to when I get to see you again.” Dark looked even sadder than before as he tucked Damien into bed, pressing a soft kiss to the boy’s forehead.

“Don’t grow up too fast, Damien. Be brave.”

Damien wouldn’t see the grey man for another two years, but he would look for him every day.

\----  
2\. The day he meets his bullies  
\----

Damien enters school with a hopeful outlook. His father had tired of having him home so often, and had certainly gotten tired of having to play nice for the tutors that would come over. So, he enrolled his son into school.

Damien expected a lot from school. He was eight years old and more than excited to begin learning. Unfortunately, like most things in Damien’s life, it wouldn’t go how he expected it to.

There is, apparently, an established pecking order in the school that Damien of course wasn’t privy to. Damien had no way of preparing himself for everything the boys in his class put him through.

By the end of the day, he had done so much running and hiding that he was dragging his feet on the walk home, and he had to wonder how he was going to make it up the stairs and out of father’s way like this.

He was small, and that made it easy for them to corner him.

Damien, for the life of him, didn’t know why these boys hated him so much. He would later in life come to find it was because of who his father was, who his family was, and that they had unfairly decided that their parents’ hatred for the Gentiles would be taken out on one undersized Damien.

They beat him until they grew bored of it, and with a last kick to his back they left him be.

The small boy was beginning to wonder how he would ever get home when a familiar pair of shoes came into view.

Lifting his head, he found himself looking up at Dark. The man was just as hard to read as he had been when Damien saw him for the first time, but Damien knew now that that was just Dark hiding how he really felt.

Damien tried to smile at him, but the pain he was experiencing was quick to steal the smile away. He tried not to whimper as Dark picked him up off the ground, but soon the pain was soothed by the chill Dark brought.

He felt colder than Damien remembered, but Damien couldn’t have cared any less about that if he tried to. He let his eyes shut, and trusted that Dark would take care of him.

When he next opened his eyes he was tucked into his bed and all his cuts were clean. He felt sore, but not in pain.

Looking around worriedly, he found that Dark was asleep in a chair by his bed. He giggled, amused that his friend would fall asleep in such an odd position. He reached out, gently prodding at Dark’s arm.

Damien giggled even harder when Dark opened only one eye to glare at him. Damien knew right away that Dark was playing with him, so he prodded his arm with a bit more force.

“Wake up, Darkie!” He laughed, and Dark’s cold indifference gave way to the barest hint of a smile.

“I’m awake, little one.” He sighed, and Damien quietly cheered.

“Can you tell me a story?” Damien requested after a moment of silence, and Dark nodded his head.

“Of course. What would you like?”  
“A happy one.”

And so Damien fell asleep to Dark’s tale of a man who befriended a seemingly heartless dragon, and the adventures the two went on together.

When Damien woke up the next morning, Dark was nowhere to be found.


	2. The third and fourth times

\----  
3\. Damien falls in love for the first time  
\----

Damien Gentile was 16 years old when he first fell in love. Or, rather, when he first realized he had fallen in love.

He had known Mark and William for two years now, and the older boys meant everything to him. They protected him and made him laugh, and they were better to him than anyone else ever had been.

Damien was in love with his best friend William, and he was terrified.

He was contemplating it all when his shadow lifted up from the ground and made itself into a person. Damien couldn’t believe his eyes when Dark came to stand before him. He’d thought for so long now that Dark was something he’d dreamed up to cope.

Apparently not.

“It’s been a long time.” Dark murmured, and Damien noted with quiet apprehension that the other being looked tired. Almost sickly, paler than he usually was. Damien didn’t ask why.

“It has.”

“I’m sorry.”  
“That’s alright.”  
“You didn’t think I was going to come back.”  
“No.”  
“Tell me, what’s going on?” At that question Damien snorted, dropping his head and glaring at his hands.   
“You already know, don’t you?” He asked bitterly, listening to Dark sigh in response.  
“I do. Tell me anyway.” So Damien told Dark everything. He talked about how much he loved William, his smile and laugh, his walk, everything about him. He told Dark how everything about William was just wonderful.

Sometimes as he spoke he would look at Dark and he would see that the man, while listening attentively, was staring off into the distance with an almost forlorn expression. So, finally, he asked the question that had been burning in his mind the entire time.

“Do I ever confess? Does William ever love me back?”

Damien watched Dark’s face screw up into something pensive, eyes dulling and aura flaring. “You confess.” Dark said slowly, tapping out a steady rhythm on his leg. “You tell him you love him. He doesn’t respond well, assumes you’re drunk. You agree, he takes you home. You tell him again, years later, but he doesn’t ever seem to hear you.” Damien wondered what that meant, but the look in Dark’s eyes warned him against asking.

“Do I die alone, Dark?” Damien asked, hushed and afraid. Dark let out a heavy sigh, shaking his head a bit.

“No, not alone, but certainly not with anyone or anything you would want to die with.”

“What do you mean?”  
“… You might as well have died alone.” Dark said it with a sense of finality that left Damien with a cold chill of dread. He feared what was to come, but he knew fear was something he could never bow to.

“Dark?”   
“Yes, Damien?”  
“Would you like to go get some ice cream?”

They both knew it was another way for Damien to avoid going home as well as avoid having to say goodbye to Dark, but neither of them pointed it out. Instead, Dark gave Damien a smile that in any other context may have been disturbing.

“I would love to.”

\----  
4\. Damien leaves without a goodbye  
\----

Things never seemed to turn out as Damien wanted them to, and now he was making a decision that was a surprise to even him. He had always been someone that was close to his friends, someone that told them everything and treated them as a family because the family he had been given at birth was a father that cursed his very existence on the daily.

His sister had been visiting lately, and she had quickly taken away Mark and William’s attention and affection. From the first visit, Damien knew right away that his friends cared more for her now than they did for him. He didn’t doubt that they still cared for him, only doubted that they were going to pay him any mind for anything except for his sister’s attention. Try as he might, he could never be mad with them.

Damien finished packing his bags with a heavy heart. He wouldn’t say goodbye because that would leaves things twisted and complicated. He would write them, of course, but he couldn’t bring himself to face them.

They would ask him to stay until they could catch up with him, so they would all be facing the world together. He couldn’t do that, though. He couldn’t spend another day, another night, in this house with his thoughts and his thoughts alone.

It all seemed rash, ridiculous, stupid, but he was going anyway. In the dead of the night, he was running away from home to go to college because he saw it, there was no other option for him. He either ran away or he got eaten alive by the world around him. He loved his friends, dearly, but there was too much for him to settle and think on.

He needed to run to keep his sanity in tact, and he could only beg the gods that his friends would understand that.

With his mind made, Damien took off. His father was gone for the night, out with some new lady friend or something. Damien gripped tightly to his bags, keeping his breathing as steady as he could. This was it, he was really doing this.

“They’re going to be upset with you, you should tell them.” The voice caught him off guard, so much so that he jumped and dropped his things. Behind him stood Dark, hands hidden behind his back and expression schooled into the usual stone-cold look it was in whenever Damien saw him.

“I can’t, I can’t tell them. They’ll try to stop me and I can’t stay here, they don’t understand. Besides, they just want me around to have a way to talk with Celine.” Damien spat, and Dark sighed heavily.

“Is that the truth, or is that one of the many untruths that you’ve been telling yourself? Damien you do need to leave, yes, but you don’t need to abandon your friends without a word of warning. You’re confused, you’re doing this for too many reasons and all of them make you feel justified but is that the truth? Are you justified in running like this without a goodbye?” Damien felt a spark of annoyed anger, soft in his chest and only a quiet warmth instead of a burning heat.

“Dark, don’t try to stop me. Don’t do-”  
“What they would do? Damien you know them almost as well as I do. We both know well and good they would ask you to stay, but they would acquiesce. You aren’t saying goodbye because you’re selfish. You want them to notice you’re gone, you’re trying to elicit a reaction from them. You want their attention back, that’s all this really is.”

“My father-”  
“Is abusive, of course, I understand that. So why don’t you take up Mark’s offer of moving in with them?”  
“I don’t-”  
“Want to be a burden? You know you wouldn’t be, Damien.” Damien let out a sigh, nodding his head a bit. He knew that, logically, but even still- “You’re jealous.” There it was. Damien’s true self exposed, the one that disgusted him. He was jealous, and he hated himself for it. He had no right to feel jealous.

Just because Celine seemed to replacing him didn’t mean she actually was, and Will and Mark would never abandon him like that. Logically, he knew that, but for some reason he couldn’t move on from it. Instead he was running away like an upset child, and as much as he hated himself for it he knew he wouldn’t turn back now.

Dark, too, seemed to know this.   
“At least let me come with you for the first leg of the journey?” He requested tiredly, and Damien agreed with a small nod of his head. “Thank you.” Damien didn’t reply, but he didn’t have to.

Dark and Damien walked in silence, side by side, down the street. It was nice, oddly enough.

“Thank you.” Damien said after a while. “For everything. You’ve always been around when I really, really needed a friend and I feel like I can tell you more than I can my real friends and family.”

Dark gave him a sad smile, placing a cold hand on his shoulder. “Of course, Damien. It wouldn’t be right for me to abandon you. Now, I’m afraid I must go. The sun is coming soon, and that means the next leg of your journey is beginning. Stay safe, my friend.” For some inexplicable reason, Damien felt like crying.

He didn’t, though. He had long since perfected the art of holding back tears, and instead he pushed forward to ensnare Dark in a hug.

“You take care too, Dark. For me?” Dark faltered at the affection, as though it had caught him terribly off guard. Damien knew, just from how the man acted, that it had caught him off guard. Damien was glad that even though Dark supposedly knew everything about Damien, he could still surprise the entity. It was satisfying.

“Until the next time I see you, old friend.” Damien murmured, and Dark let out a soft chuckle.

“So grown up already, Damien. Can’t wait to see what you’re like then.” He teased, and Damien gave him a beaming grin.

 

“Let’s hope I’m not dying.”   
Dark disappeared just fast enough to hide the way his expression faltered because of that statement.


	3. The fifth and sixth times

\----  
5\. Damien wants to make things right again.  
\----

Damien had just finished packing when he picked up on a presence behind him. The mayor stilled his hands and turned slowly to find an old friend settled on his bed. He smiled softly, eyes sad as he met Dark’s.

“Well hello stranger.”  
“Hello, Damien.”

Damien looked the entity over carefully, smile falling as he took in Dark’s appearance. “Were you getting dressed? Or undressed?”

“Unfortunately I can’t really control when and where I visit you, Damien.” Dark commented dryly, and Damien held back a snort. “I was in the middle of something when I appeared here, yes.”

“Well I’m very sorry that you got interrupted.”  
“It’s alright, I’m always glad to see my old friend.”

“You haven’t seen my in almost a decade, Dark.” Damien reminded with a quirked brow, and Dark rolled his eyes.

“Really? Hadn’t noticed, I thought it had only been a few weeks.” Damien let himself laugh over that, rubbing his face tiredly afterwards.

“I’m going to Mark’s manor-”  
“I know.” Dark cut him off, and Damien frowned. Dark seemed upset, and that filled Damien with a sense of dread.

“You know what’s going to happen at the manor, Dark, I know that. You don’t look happy, either.” He pointed it out carefully, and when Dark only nodded slowly Damien knew what came next.

“… yes.”

“I’m going to die, aren’t I?”

“Yes.”

“… and you said I might as well have been alone?”

“Yes.” Dark’s continuing chain of the word yes was starting to get to Damien, so he decided to try and end it. No more questions.

“… well. I’ll still go.” He wouldn’t abandon his friends, not again. Even if they would be the cause of his death, he wanted to see them. He wanted them to know, or at least try to make sure they knew, he loved them.

“Damien-”

“No. No. I don’t care. I want to see my friends again, at least this one, last time. Even if it does kill me. I want that, Dark.”

“… As you wish, Damien. I won’t stop you, I don’t think I really can.” Dark spread out his hands, palms up, in a show of surrender and defeat. As much as he seemed to want to try and prevent Damien’s death, they both knew that if Damien didn’t die tonight he’d still die later. It was inevitable, so why hold it off?

“… You’ve been a good friend, for how short our visits always are. You’re strange, I don’t understand you, but I love you. Thank you.” Damien’s sincerity caught Dark off guard, just as his affection had all those years ago, and Damien had to smile sadly over it.

“I’ll miss you.”

“No you won’t.” Damien spoke with a bitter grin, but it was softer than if he was truly upset. They both knew he only wished Dark would be more honest with him.

“…”

“I’m not that dumb, Dark. I don’t know what you are, but I know you won’t miss me. That’s alright. I’ll miss you, friend, you don’t have to miss me back.” Damien spoke softly, moving to sit down next to Dark. He leaned against the grey man, shutting his eyes and letting out a long, tired sigh.

“Dark?”  
“Yes, Damien?”

“How long will you be here?”  
“I don’t know, Damien.” Damien nodded, eyes opening and moving to settle on Dark’s face.

“Will you stay with me, until you have to leave? I’m… afraid.” Damien let it out with hesitance, afraid to admit to being afraid. Dark only nodded and gripped his hand, gentle as he ran a thumb over Damien’s knuckles.

“I’m sorry.” Dark murmured, and Damien only shook his head.

“You’ve nothing to apologize for, my friend.”

“I do, but your faith in me is… comforting.” Dark replied, squeezing Damien’s hand. Damien fell silent after that, listening to his own breathing and the birds outside.

He was afraid, but at least he could have a few last moments of calm. Calm before the storm, and he knew that this storm would be a big one.

If only he knew how painful it would be.

\----  
6\. Darkiplier is dying.  
\----

Dark had known this day would come. The day that it all became null and void, the day that all of his work became meaningless. The day that he died. He’d never expected it to be so soon, though.

Leaning back against the wall of his office, he squeezed his eyes shut. Pain racked his body, more than usual, and he bit back a groan. This was agony, but he couldn’t bring himself to call for anyone. He didn’t want their pitying glances, he didn’t want to be saved.

Because that was the truth, wasn’t it? He knew they could, and would, save him. He just didn’t want to be, he wanted to die.

“You don’t have to die alone.” Dark’s head shot up, eyes wide with shock. No, he thought, there’s no way it could be-

But it was. Before him stood Damien Gentile, eyes and smile as sad as the day they had said their supposed final goodbyes. He was glowing a soft blue, but he was there.

“Damien-”  
“Don’t.” Damien murmured, bringing his hand up and shaking his head. “If it’s an apology, don’t bother. If it’s to ask me how, let’s just say it’s because you’re dying and leave it there.” Damien spoke softly, too softly to be talking to the one that had kept him locked away in hell for years. Damien had always been too forgiving, though.

“You’re here to see me off?”  
“I suppose I am, old friend.” Damien chuckled, moving to gingerly settle down beside Dark. Dark was surprised when he found he could lean against him, but he did so gladly. It was nice not to have to hold himself up anymore. He was so, so tired.

“I’m dying.” Dark stated hollowly, trying to remind himself that this was happening. This was real. Damien hummed, wrapping a warm arm around the entity.

“Yes, you are. But you’ll die with a friend, Dark. Like I never got to.” Dark grimaced, but Damien was quick to soothe him. “At least I can see my oldest friend off.”

“You should go see him, Wilford, while you’re physically manifested-”  
“No. I should stay with you, and once you fade I’ll fade with you.” Damien hushed him, and while Dark had half the mind to be annoyed he just let it be. Damien’s choices weren’t his to make, after all.

“Thank you for being here.” He spoke, finally, and Damien smiled softly.

“Of course, Dark. I wouldn’t have let you die alone, even if I had to possess someone.” He teased, and Dark couldn’t help but let out the laugh that bubbled up in response. “You’ve always visited to comfort me, on purpose or not. I needed to repay the favor eventually.” Damien added, gently reaching up to run a hand through Dark’s hair.

By the time the pain hit a crescendo, Dark was laid out on the floor with his head in Damien’s lap. Damien soothed him as well as he could, telling stories and singing songs from their memories. Dark relaxed, eventually, and that was when they both knew this would really be their final goodbye.

“It has been an honor, Dark.” Damien whispered, and Dark smirked.  
“You’re a terrible liar.”


End file.
